Issues in Brief Five Challenges to the Future of Transboundary Water Governance Leeann M

029 AUGUST 2014 ISSUES IN BRIEF Five Challenges to the Future of Transboundary Water Governance Leeann M. Sullivan Along the banks of the Okavango River in Southern Africa, elephants, zebras, and hippopotami forage for food and sip from the cool, untainted waters. Fish, crocodiles, and birds take refuge in papyrus plants, and lions stalk their prey among the tall reed grasses that grow waist-high in the wet season. However, it is not only wildlife that inhabits the area surrounding the Okavango. Humans also live in this delicate ecosystem — and their numbers are increasing. The population in the river basin is projected to increase by more than 40 percent by 2050, and resource scarcity is a major concern (OKACOM 2014). This issue is not unique to the Okavango. Throughout the developing and industrialized world, water Leeann Sullivan was a 2013 managers are making tough decisions regarding the distribution and conservation of this vital, Graduate Summer Fellow with the Frederick S. Pardee Center life-sustaining resource. for the Study of the Longer- In recent decades, Range Future. She earned “ Lessons learned from the integration of her M.A. in International community-based Relations and Environmental programs have management systems in the Okavango ... Policy from Boston University flourished as efficient could highlight key components of in 2014, and was the models for interstate recipient of the Department river management Award in Excellence for sustainable water management for (Mbaiwa 2004). International Relations. Her the longer-range future.” research focuses on resource These organizations management in large river — hybrids between basins, and broadly considers traditional top-down forms of environmental governance and indigenous knowledge the political implications of systems — are often better positioned than state governments to address details involved human interactions with the in the complex management of international rivers (Kgathi 2002). Although localized water natural world. management schemes have been successful in recent decades, communities now face www.bu.edu/pardee basin-wide challenges that they cannot address alone. Transboundary institutions such as the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) are now integral to the planning and distribution of water between and within state boundaries. Rather than abandon community-based organizations, these regional groups must work with them to create a holistic framework for addressing challenges associated with allocation, financing, communication, and effective governance within and across borders. The integration of these two management systems is vital to the sustainable development of the Okavango Basin. Management of such a complex river system requires the active involvement of individuals who work at all levels, from local to global, to ensure that water-consumptive infrastructure development can occur alongside conservation-based development and ecotourism. Moreover, community involvement in resource management has benefits above and beyond economic development. Inclusion of stakeholders in the decision-making process for water resources increases local resilience to disaster events such as floods and droughts, promotes social wellbeing through increased access to resources and infrastructure, and fosters the development of a strong and independent civil society that demands political representation and accountability from governments. Lessons learned from the integration of management systems in the Okavango are largely transferable to other international river basins and could highlight key components of sustainable water management for the longer-range future. Experimental Governance in the Okavango Basin The Okavango River is the confluence of tributaries and streams from the Cubango and Cuito Rivers that begin in central Angola, cross the Namibian panhandle, and eventually deposit into the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. A full 1900 km in length, the Okavango results in one of the largest inland deltas in the world. Approximately 95 percent of the 9.4 billion cubic meters of water that flows through the river comes from precipitation in the Angolan catchment, which flows south for almost four months before reaching the delta. This time lag, which is due to a gradient of only 60-meters for the entire length of the river, is imperative to supporting life in the arid southern region. Here, water enters the Kalahari Desert during the dry winter months and creates an oasis that supports a diversity of wildlife, Figure 1: The Okavango River Basin plants, and human communities (Mendelsohn et al. 2010). While exact statistics on water use are difficult to obtain in the Okavango, it is clear that population growth and socioeconomic development are shifting the balance of supply and demand for water from the river. Roughly 900,000 people currently inhabit the basin: 57 percent reside in Angola, 25 percent in Namibia, and 18 percent in Botswana. Approximately 62 percent of inhabitants live in rural areas, while 38 percent live in urban centers along the river. Within a decade, 1.28 million people are projected to inhabit the basin, many of them flocking to urban areas such as Maun and Menongue where socio-economic development results in higher household water consumption per person. Houses in urban areas that are directly connected to water points use approximately 50 liters of water per person per day, while those in rural areas where residents must gather their water from distant wells use only 25. Agriculture is the most dominant use of water in the Okavango, accounting for 83 percent of total withdrawals. Other uses include livestock maintenance, mining, and water consumed at tourism facilities. Ecosystem and wildlife maintenance requires additional water reserves; however, these statistics are largely Data Source: Rivers Network (Map by Author) unknown at the basin-wide scale (FAO 2014). THE FREDERICK S. PARDEE CENTER FOR www.bu.edu/pardee 2 THE STUDY OF THE LONGER-RANGE FUTURE Excluding water for ecosystem maintenance, the uses listed above constitute only 90 million cubic meters, or one percent of available water supply. While the future of development in the basin remains uncertain, growth predictions for the coming century estimate that as much as 39 percent of available supply may be extracted. This is particularly worrying in an environment as variable as the Okavango, where seasonal floods and droughts result in dramatic changes to flow. Whether this level of development could be sustained during drought periods is uncertain at best, and may coincide with climate change driven increases in temperature that will raise the already high rate of evaporation in the delta. The resulting decrease in the value of downstream tourism would almost certainly be detrimental to communities, wildlife, and the ecosystem as a whole (FAO 2014). Table 1: Average Annual Okavango Basin Water Use (2008–2011), by Sector (1000s of m3) 80,000 78,545 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 32,564 20,000 10,000 3,935 2,810 0 0.1 0 Irrigation Livestock Household Mining Tourism Other Data Source: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 2014 * Note: Tourism values include only water consumed at facilities and do not account for resources necessary to maintain wildlife populations. Coordination at the local, state, and regional level is necessary to manage the complexities of a river the size of the Okavango. To address this, Angola, Namibia, and Botswana came together in 1994 to create OKACOM, a regional advisory body that works with state governments and non-governmental organizations to collect and share information on the sustainable use of water in the basin. OKACOM is composed of a Commission tasked with creating policy recommendations, a Secretariat that facilitates information flow between groups, and three steering committees that conduct technical studies on issues related to the political institutions that manage water, the hydrology of the river, and biodiversity in the basin. Soon after the founding of OKACOM, conservation groups from Namibia and Botswana came forward to present the Commission with the Every River has its People Initiative, a program aimed at providing communities with the skills and tools to participate in the management process. Eager to garner stakeholder involvement, OKACOM agreed to recognize the authority of community trusts and offered observer status to representatives THE FREDERICK S. PARDEE CENTER FOR www.bu.edu/pardee THE STUDY OF THE LONGER-RANGE FUTURE 3 from these communities through a “basin-wide forum.” In the last decade, community- based water management groups — known in the Okavango as community trusts or water point committees — have become increasingly important to management. The groups are recognized by both OKACOM and state officials as legitimate governing bodies, and while important resource decisions are still made mostly at the state level, the trusts represent the interests of stakeholders in the policy process (Mbaiwa 2004). Alongside representation, community management groups in the Okavango have the dual objective of providing public services while also promoting programs for conservation. Since the advent of community-based water management in Namibia, rural access to drinkable water has increased from 75 percent to 91 percent and urban access has improved from 95 percent to 98 percent (UN Mission to Namibia 2011). Trusts educate communities on the sustainable use of resources,

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